News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-03
CATCHING A MAIL THIEF.
The Story Told by Postal Department
Detective.

Before the days of Post Office money
orders and the registry system, the
amount of bank notes sent by mail was
enormous. People had to send either
this way or by express, and, though
every sender felt that the mails were
not quite safe, he would take his
chances. There were many robberics,
as we all know, but not one dollar was
taken for SIS, GOO sent. Nowadays if a
registered letter is missing 1t can be
traced pretty close to the party who
took it, but III those days Gov rnment
officer had to work for days or weeks to
nab the guilty party.
[ remember that l was once sent to
Illinois to investigate the numerous
complaints which had come regarding a
certain route. This route began at
Springfield and extended sixty-seven
miles, taking in towns which will call
Liverpool, Abbeville, White Rock, ID :
visburg, and Montgomery. 1t was all
stage route, and, as the country was
we'll settled up, the mails were always
heavy. Most of the complaints had
come from citizens of Springfield and
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gest places, and were at the extreme
ends of the route. Money sent from
Springfield would not reach Montgom-
cry, and vice versa That is, it would
not reach the hands of the persons for
whom it was intended set to work
believing that | had hard job before
me, for all the POstmasters were men
who were above suspicion l first rode
over the route several times, or I'M
til perfectly satisfied that the mail
rlers had nothing to do with the
robberies. The nearest town to Spring
geld was Liverpool I mailed decoy
letter from there to Springfield, and it
was safely delivered. The nearest town
to Montgomery was Davisburg. Imaiied
a decoy letter from there to Montgomery,
and it was safely delivered. That seemed
to prove that the robbery was at Able
vile or White Rock. l mailed from
Abbeville one wav and from White
Rock the other, and, after few days,
was convinced that the trouble was in
the latter Post Office.
" hite Rock was a village of seven
hundred inhabitants, and the Post Office
was kept in the wing of dry goods
store. The wing had been built on for
the office, and besides having a door
from the street there was a second from
the store and a third from the family
sitting room. This latter led into the
office itself, and was used ouly by the
Postmaster and his family. The Post
master was man nearly sixty years old,
reasonably we'll off, and the first look
into his face satisfied me that he could
know nothing of the robberies. He
had two clerks in the store with him,
but they had nothing to do with the
mails. After a little observation | dis
covered that the Postmaster was assisted
by his wife, woman of about his own
age, and by young woman who was
related to them, but served as a hired
girl. Everything seemed to be honest
and straightforward in the office, as far
as | could see from the corridor, but that
would have been the case in any event.
| mailed decoy letter from that office
to Springfield, and it passed safely
Then l mailed one from there to Mont
gomery, and it was lost. In the course
of three weeks got three decoy letters
over the route all right, while three
more were stolen, and all the evidence
seemed to point to v hite Rock as the
place.
BY carefully watching the White Rock
office l found that on days when the
mail reached there at II o'clock A NJ,
which was its schedule time, my decoy
letters went no further. When the
stage was late, which was a frequent oc-
currcnce, the letters got no further.
soon solved this mystery. If the mail
came in on time the young woman
helped to sort, wrap, and distribute it
while the stage waited. If it was late
she had to be busy about the dinner,
and the Postmaster and his wife did the
work. | was soon assured that the girl
was the guilty party, and when l began
to make inquiries about her 1 found
that she had avery dissipated brother in
Springfield, and that she wrote him at
least once a week. l went to SPRING
field to look him up, and found him
drinking, playing billiards, and smok-
ing cigars. Seemingly he had plenty of
money. In all my decoy letters l had,
of course, marked the bills, and as luck
would have it, l had not shadowed the
young man over half an hour when he
offered one Of these bills to a barkeeper,
and I managed to secure it in change.
Then l had him locked u, and l re-
turned to White Rock to deal with his
sister. | first took the Postmaster aside
and made myself k own, and showed
him my proofs. He was greatly agi-
tated, but firm in his belief that the girl
was innocent, and could explain matters.
| held my interview with her in the
kitchen. She was furiously indignant
at first, and even when l explained the
decoy letters and showed her the marked
money she would not yield a hairs
breadth. made search of her room,
and in her trunk found at least twenty
letters and envelopes, and every one OF
which had contained money and been
stolen from tho mails. The sight of
these broke her down, and she con-
fessed to having distracted in all over
$500, every do,llr of which had gone to
her brother, who was her nearest rela-
tive sn1 beloved in spite of his h ri
character. She get off with a fine,
l believe, while the brother was made
accessory and got sentence of a year
or so, and the matter SO worked on the
mind of the old Postmaster that he
hanged himself in the barn few days
after the case was disposed of.